Perfect Season, Now DeSales

WAITSBURG - Having already logged a perfect season, the Lady Cardinals Tuesday extended their historic winning streak with a 57-29 win over Liberty Christian.

The women now go into the district championship game against DeSales at Whitman College on Friday.

"DeSales is the toughest opponent of the season," head coach Jerry Baker said after the game against the Patriots. "It's a lot harder to beat them three times than it is to beat them twice."

But running over league teams repeatedly like a freight train without breaks hasn't appeared to be too much of a problem for the Cardinals as Tuesday night's defeat of the Patriots showed.

The two teams drew up about evenly until the score was 8-8 in the first quarter, then the Cardinals just took off in their usual bucketpounding fashion, ending the period with almost double Liberty Christian's points 16-9.

The second quarter started with a free-throw exchange, which favored the Cardinals because the Patriots were poor shots even with the prospective gifts from the line, not to mention the field. The latter inability had a lot to do with WP's successfully disruptive defense and the ruckus atmosphere on Kison Court.

With less than a minute to go in the half, Cardinal Katie Hofer scored a trey that stirred up the home stands and took the opponents' breath away, ending the second quarter 26-15.

WP hung on to its doublescore lead in the quarter, ending it 41-19 thus allowing the Patriots a mere four points before the start of the last period.

"We got a little lazy on the defense during the first half," Baker said. "But we played better in the second half."

The Patriots came back with a bit more energy in the fourth quarter, but so did WP in the form of several younger players who proved just as tenacious as their older teammates.

Hailey Goenen, Samantha Moss and Kayla Huxoll came onto the court like a triplex on fire, replacing Kristin Potter, Krystal Harris, Megan Withers and Genesis Pearson who lit up the board earlier in the game and came off Kison under appreciative applause.

For a while during the fourth, the Patriots' scoring seemed to stop altogether, while the Cardinals just kept hooping it with field goals, free throws and rebounds.

"It was a well-balanced game," Baker concluded. "Everyone contributed."

Indeed, all 12 Cardinals scored points during the game.

Now, WP faces the Irish again, and although the Cardinals have beaten DeSales twice already, the Walla Walla team has a discouraging ability to produce three pointers. The Cardinals, who have more speed, will benefit from the larger college court, which is 10 feet longer than the average high school gym's floor.

"We're going to have to take care of business Friday," Baker said.

The much- anticipated district championship game starts at 6 p.m.

WP vs LC

57-29

WP 16 10 15 16 57

LC9641029

WP (59) Genesis Pearson 11, Dionna Baker 8, Megan

Withers 8, Kritin Potter 6, Krystal Harris 5; Hailey Goenen

4, Ronnie Hulce 4, Katie Hofer 3, Samantha Moss 2, Tayler Doepker 2, Kayla Huxoll 2 and Alyssa Hafen 2. Free

throws: 3/7 for 42 percent.